New Mexico Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera says new statistics show most parents are not being informed properly when early reading difficulties.
The Public Education Department found that fewer than 5 percent of parents received necessary written notices when third graders failed to meet reading proficiency standards at public school throughout the state.
The agency says that parents of those students should be required by schools to sign a waiver before their children advance to the next grade.
The department found that 6,815 New Mexico students in third grade during last school year did not attain proficiency in reading, and that 6,477 of those students advanced to fourth grade in the fall anyway. In all, 338 letters were sent to parents concerning whether their child should remain in third grade.
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